Neuville Brothers Building Powerful Crewboat

Friday, October 12, 2001

Steve Miguez is adding a fourth crew boat to his Iberia Crewboats fleet. Like the Mr. Blake, Mr. Ridge and Lady Glenda that he already operates, the Lady Marie is being built across the road from his New Iberia home at the Neuville Boat Works. This is the thirteenth boat that Steve has had built at the yard since he started in the business as a 21-year-old in 1975.

Like the last one that he had built there, it is 150 ft. over all with a 28-ft. beam. Tankage and most other aspects of the new vessel are the same. The major departure from earlier vessel is to be found in the engine room. The earlier boat was powered by five of Cummins six-cylinder KTA19 M4 engines rated at 700 hp each for a total of 3,500 hp. The new boat, to be launched this fall, will have four Cummins 12-cylinder KTA38 M2 engines with their Heavy Duty rating of ,1350 hp each at 1,950 rpm for a total of 5,400 hp. With 50 percent more hp the new boat is expected to have a light running speed in the 27-knot range compared to the earlier boats 23-knot speed. The engines on the new boat will turn 4.5-in. stainless steel shafts through Twin Disc model 6,650 gears fitted for 2.5:1 reduction. With this much power on each shaft the propellers are over square at 45 by 48 in. As Kerry Neuville explains, these over square wheels provide a "little slippage in reverse so that there is an increase in rpm and a boost in hp when handling the boat in rough seas under the rigs." A pair of Cummins powered 50 kW gen sets are keel cooled. One of these auxiliary engines also can power a 900 gpm fire pump. Seating for 49 passengers is provided while the 22.13 x 87.5-ft. open deck will carry up to 180 long tons.